• How to Start and Grow a Think Tank
• Grassroots Leadership Guide to K-12 Education Reform
  • Prologue
  • Decide What Type of Organization You Want to Become
  • Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
  • Get Things Up and Running
  • Legal Reference Material
  • Organize Your Staff and Volunteers
  • Examples of Programs and Operational Materials
  • Building Coalitions
  • Getting Your Message Out/Media Relations
  • Talking with Legislators
    • Overview
    • Working Effectively with State Lawmakers
    • How to Lobby Your Legislator
    • The Personal Touch
    • Tips for Drafting Effective School Choice Legislation
  • Raising Money
  • History of School Choice
  • Education Reform Research and Resources
  • Resources
• Taking Donors Seriously
• Fundraising Fundamentals

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Tips for Drafting Effective School Choice Legislation

by Scott R. Jensen, Alliance for School Choice

1)The scholarship should be large enough so families can afford a wide range of choices.

• We suggest the scholarship should be tied to school costs not school tuition.
• Legislators may wish to means-test the scholarship amount.

2)The school choice program must be large enough to create a vigorous market of consumers (students) and producers (schools).

• There must be enough students and schools in a geographically concentrated area to produce a well-functioning competitive market.
• Milwaukee has nearly 15,000 students choosing from 120 private schools in a single city.

3)The scholarship should make the public or private school of choice affordable for all parents.

• Experience suggests that most families do not have the financial ability to choose private schooling until the family income reaches about $75,000. Do not make the income eligibility guidelines too low.
• We recommend that states determine program eligibility using a multiple of the national income guidelines for the Free and Reduced Price lunch program.

4)The market needs stability/certainty to thrive.

• Make sure that a child‘s qualification for the program lasts for the length of their schooling.
• Avoid creating "pilot programs" or program sunsets.

5)As stewards of public funds, legislators should rightly require financial and administrative accountability for participating schools. We believe that empowered and informed parents are the best means to achieve academic accountability. Therefore, we recommend that participating schools be required to administer a national or state test of their choosing and that the results be reported to the parents of each student and to a selected independent evaluator

6)The program should make it easy for families and schools to participate.

• Application and eligibility demonstration should be simple for parents and public financing mechanics should be simple for schools.
• Vouchers are the best financing mechanism for both schools and parents. Tax credits should be refundable and assignable.